Sentencing for Jeffrey Truman rescheduled

SYRACUSE >> Sentencing for a man convicted of arson for a 2006 factory fire has been postponed.

Jeffrey Truman Sr., 54, will now wait until spring for sentencing. This is roughly the fifth time sentencing has been postponed since last fall.

Most recently, it was scheduled to take place Thursday, Valentines Day, in federal court in Syracuse.

The new date for sentencing is April 9 at 11 a.m. in Syracuse.

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Truman's case began in 2006 with a fire that was set in the Stanton Paper Box factory fire on North Warner Street in Oneida, that ended up leveling the building.

He was later acquitted in a Madison County Court trial, Truman was tried at the federal level and found guilty in 2010 of arson and two counts of mail fraud related to the arson case.

After the November 2010 federal trial ended, presiding Judge David Hurd overturned the jury's verdict, acquitting Truman of all charges. Hurd's decision was then appealed by federal prosecutors in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which reinstated the federal jury's original conviction.

The case was returned to Hurd in District Court July 25, 2012 for sentencing.

At that time, Hurd recused himself from the case because, while he accepted the Circuit Court's decision, he believed Truman should be acquitted and might even be innocent.

On Thursday, court officials for the Northern District of New York couldn't give a reason for the rescheduling.

However, Federal prosecutor Ed Broton said that the number of adjournments is a little unusual.

"But this has been an abnormal case," he said, recounting case history that includes the original federal judge recusing himself, and a September detention hearing being held before U.S. District Court Judge Norman Mordue to determine whether he would be jailed prior to sentencing or remain free on bail.

Mordue ordered Truman to be placed in federal custody pending his sentencing.

Broton also added that when a sentencing is adjourned at the federal level, it is done prior to the scheduled court date and not in open court. Attorneys receive a very brief explanation of the change through an electronic case filing system they use.

For Thursday's adjourned sentencing all Broton knew is that the change was not made by his office nor the federal public defenders office, but was perhaps adjourned by the judge for scheduling reasons.

Speaking to past sentencing adjournments, Broton believes that at least one instance had to do with a pre-sentence report not being complete. However, that has since been completed.

A pre-sentence report is completed by a member of the probation department and typically contains detailed information about the current and prior convictions on the record of the person to be sentenced as well as biographical information and an interview conducted with the person to be sentenced.

When sentenced, Truman faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 70 years in prison for his federal convictions.

Truman's attorney, federal public defender Lisa Peebles was unable to be reached for comment on Thursday.